So, you woke up this morning, took a shower, had breakfast (if you found the time for it) and boarded a bus or walked to school. You went to classes, maybe took a quiz, ate lunch (if you found the time for that, too) and went home or to work.
Just another day in the life of a traditional college-age person, right?
Well, for students, sure. But not everyone takes the same path. Some 620,000 Americans between ages 18 and 25 are on active duty with the military — 45 percent of the services.
As America is involved in a military conflict, this Veterans’ Day makes for a particularly apt time to reflect on veterans’ efforts and what other college-age people are doing with their lives.
But in many ways joining the military is a special path — one that students might not have the scope or time to appreciate. For most students, a bad day means getting by on five hours of sleep. For the soldiers involved in the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, a bad day means dodging bullets.
On Nov. 2, 15 soldiers died when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed, possibly the result of a missile attack, witnesses said. Of the 11 soldiers the military identified by Sunday, six were younger than 24.
It can be easy to forget how significantly college-age soldiers affect the world and local communities in a state without a major military installation, such as Oregon. But in many places, the military world is much closer to the forefront of the local collective consciousness.
Consider the story of one of the 15 soldiers who died in the copter crash, Army Spc. Darius T. Jennings, 22. Jennings — who hailed from Orangeburg, a South Carolina town of about 13,000 — became the third graduate of the town’s only high school to die while on military duty in Iraq since August. (Army Sgt. Anthony Thompson, 26, was killed Sept. 18 in an ambush near Tikrit; Pft. Vorn Mack, 19, drowned Aug. 23.)
At Orangeburg-Wilkinson High, 85 percent of the students qualify for discounted or free lunches, making the military a more realistic immediate option for many students than a four-year college program.
“They turn to the military as a means to an end,” Air Force Junior ROTC Director Maj. Frank Douglas told CNN about the popularity of military aspirations at Orangeburg for a Nov. 5 article.
Douglas added that many students at the school have been discouraged from military service by the untimely deaths.
“There were some who I knew absolutely were geared towards the military,” he said. “They had planned to go to college and then join as an officer later on and now have those reservations and have those questions like, ‘It’s not safe, and if it can happen to someone here, it can happen to me.’”
That danger is something that college students studying in the States don’t — and don’t have to — think about in their day-to-day goings-on.
But regardless of whether you agree with the current war’s motivations or justifications, it’s important to consider the life of college-age soldiers and to recognize the efforts of those who volunteer themselves for potentially perilous duty to serve their nation.